Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince - J.K. Rowling

J.K. Rowling
HARRY POTTER AND THE HALF-BLOOD PRINCE
CHAPTER ONE
THE OTHER MINISTER
It was nearing midnight and the Prime Minister was sitting alone in his
office, reading a long memo that was slipping through his brain without leaving
the slightest trace of meaning behind. He was waiting for a call from
the President of a far distant country, and between wondering when the wretched
man would telephone, and trying to suppress unpleasant memories of
what had been a very long, tiring, and difficult week, there was not much
space in his head for anything else. The more he attempted to focus on the
print on the page before him, the more clearly the Prime Minister could see
the gloating face of one of his political opponents. This particular opponent
had appeared on the news that very day, not only to enumerate all the terrible
things that had happened in the last week (as though anyone needed
reminding) but also to explain why each and every one of them was the government’s
fault.
The Prime Minister’s pulse quickened at the very thought of these accusations,
for they were neither fair nor true. How on earth was his government
supposed to have stopped that bridge collapsing? It was outrageous for anybody
to suggest that they were not spending enough on bridges. The bridge
was fewer than ten years old, and the best experts were at a loss to explain
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